This invention relates to exercise equipment and computer networking.
In the exercise industry, a relatively homogenous group of people frequent fitness centers and use exercise equipment. These people include fitness-minded individuals in the middle to upper income level with a concern about their health. Currently, there is not an effective way to tailor the marketing of products and services to these individuals based upon their common interest in fitness and frequent visits to the gym. Accordingly, fitness centers generate little or no marketing revenue for advertising to their membership the products and services of other companies.
Conversely, the Internet provides a conduit for delivering marketing and other information however does not provide an efficient way to tie marketing information with a homogenous group of individuals. Unfortunately, many portals and other websites have attempted to do this varied success. The costs associated with large advertising campaigns on television, radio and even the Internet urging people to visit a website often exceed any revenue stream they could reasonably generate. In particular, there are no existing systems capable of tying together customers in the exercise industry with the power and direct marketing capabilities of the Internet.
Others have clearly failed to recognize the capabilities of using the Internet in the fitness industry and with fitness equipment. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,509 concerns controlling exercise equipment remotely and U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,839, merely aggregates existing functions on a computer connected to the Internet with an exercise bicycle.
In one aspect of the invention, a method automatically manages the operation of an exercise device, by identifying whether the exercise device has submitted an indication that it is operational, determining if a predetermined time interval has elapsed, and resetting the exercise device when the time interval has elapsed and the exercise device has not indicated that it is operational over the most recent time interval.
In another aspect of the invention, apparatus for automatically managing the operation of an exercise device includes a timer that determines whether a predetermined time interval has elapsed, and an embedded processor that identifies whether the exercise device has submitted an indication that it is operational and resets the exercise device when the predetermined time interval has elapsed and the exercise device has not indicated that it is operational.
Aspects of the invention provide one or more of the following advantages. Fitness centers having exercise devices using computers, network equipment and other complex equipment do not have to manually check if the equipment is operational. Instead, the operation of the exercise device and equipment is checked automatically on a periodic basis. Additionally, if the exercise equipment is found not to be operational, then it is automatically reset. This may involve rebooting or resetting the computer and networking equipment associated with the exercise equipment. By managing the exercise equipment in this manner, the fitness center has lower administrative costs managing and servicing the equipment while users have more reliability exercise equipment
The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.